'Thrown out for being Indian': Why Shashi Tharoor’s Breach Candy Club story is back in focus

Private clubs are meant to be exclusive. But when race or inherited privilege becomes barriers, the issue goes beyond leisure and status. As Delhi’s Delhi Gymkhana Club faces questions over elite entitlement and control of public land, another old institution in Mumbai is drawing attention for its own controversial system of exclusion, the Breach Candy Swimming Bath Trust, better known as Breach Candy Club.

Located on Bhulabhai Desai Road in South Mumbai’s wealthy Breach Candy area, the club has long been associated with privilege and exclusivity.

While the Delhi Gymkhana controversy centres on lease arrangements and membership transparency, critics of Breach Candy point to something else. Even in 2026, the club’s governing system still gives real control only to Europeans.

The club’s exclusivity once affected Shashi Tharoor, who has spoken about being asked to leave its swimming pool as a child because he was Indian.'

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Started as a Europeans only club

Breach Candy Club was founded in 1878 during British rule as a facility meant only for European residents of Bombay. After Independence, pressure gradually grew to allow Indians into the club, and ordinary membership was eventually opened to them in the 1960s.

 

 

 

However, the club’s power structure largely remained the same.

Under a constitution approved by the City Civil Court in 1967, members are divided into different categories. Trust members, limited to “European inhabitants of Bombay”, hold the real authority. Only they can become trustees or serve on the managing committee. This gives them control over admissions, finances, and club policies.

Ordinary members, most of whom are Indians today, can use the club’s facilities but cannot vote on trustee matters or hold governing positions. The membership reportedly includes business families, diplomats, Parsis, and members of Mumbai’s old wealthy circles.

High membership fees and long waiting list

The club sits on a four-acre seafront property overlooking the Arabian Sea. It is known for its saltwater swimming pool shaped like the map of undivided British India. The club also has tennis courts, restaurants, bars, and private leisure spaces that remain cut off from Mumbai’s crowded city life.

Membership is still highly sought after despite reportedly costing more than ₹1.2 crore. The waiting list is said to stretch beyond 10 years.

Industrialist Harsh Goenka also joined the discussion through a post on X. He wrote, “Mumbai never tires of talking about inclusivity and progress. Yet a few decades ago, Indians were not allowed membership at Breach Candy Club, Mumbai. Astonishingly, even today, no Indian can be on its Trust Committee, only a European living in Mumbai is allowed.”

 

 

He added, “The irony? The land belongs to the Maharashtra Government.”

Venture capitalist Kaushik Subramanian also commented on the issue and wrote, “For all the outrage about Delhi Gymkhana being exclusive, Breach Candy Club is worse. On government land, but till date only Europeans or European passport holders can be in the trust/management IIRC. In 2026. It’s wild.” 

 

Courts have repeatedly supported the club’s rules

The club’s two tier system has faced several legal challenges over the years.

In 2015, the Bombay High Court ruled in favour of the Europeans only governance structure. Justice SC Gupte described the restriction as “inescapable” based on the wording of the club’s constitution.

The court removed a managing committee that included Indian members and stopped it from making policy decisions or admitting new members. In 2022, a division bench again supported the same position and said only Europeans could legally serve as trustees.

The legal argument has focused on the trust’s founding documents. Registered under the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, Breach Candy Club functions as a private charitable trust, and courts have repeatedly placed importance on its constitution over wider equality concerns.

Attempts by Indian factions within the club to change the constitution or gain more control have often been challenged in court. So far, there has been no Supreme Court ruling or law that overturns the High Court’s position.

When Shashi Tharoor was asked to leave

The club’s exclusivity became widely known after Shashi Tharoor publicly shared his own experience from the 1960s.

In his writings, Tharoor said he was “thrown out of the pool as a child in the 1960s simply for being Indian” while visiting with an American friend.

“...I myself was thrown out of Breach Candy Club in Bombay in the mid ’60s when an American classmate hoped he could ignore the whites and take an Indian friend along. That was India 20 years after Independence,” he wrote.

Around the same time, another reported incident increased pressure on the club to open ordinary membership to Indians. According to a History Channel report, a Black American diplomat brought to the club by a white colleague was denied entry, leading to outrage and criticism of the club’s racial restrictions.

Debate around Privilege and access continues

The renewed focus on Breach Candy Club comes as debates continue around inherited privilege, elite institutions, and access to valuable urban land in India.

Critics say systems rooted in colonial thinking still survive through institutions that preserve exclusivity. Supporters argue that private trusts have the right to operate according to their own legal rules and constitutions.

For now, Breach Candy Club continues to function under the same structure that has survived decades of legal scrutiny, showing how some colonial era systems still remain in modern India.